American Colonial and Federal House Styles

When North America was colonized, European settlers brought building traditions from their home countries. Houses built along the northeastern coast, where the British settled, are quite different from those built by French colonists in the Mississippi Valley and Spanish colonists in Florida and California.

German, Dutch, Swiss, and other Europeans also brought their own special traditions. Between 1600 and 1800, European styles adapted to meet the challenges posed by the climate and landscape of the new country. Using locally available materials and borrowing building techniques from Native Americans, the colonists developed not one, but many, uniquely American styles.

Centuries later, builders borrowed ideas from early American architecture to create Colonial Revival and Neocolonial styles. Architecture from America's colonial period continues to influence the houses we build today.